no matter in what state the old buddha’s mind i’ve always been here sitting in the palm of his hand heart flooding with grieving and love a poem i wrote many years ago and posted here on this blog before. i can’t find any other words to add to these at the moment. are you grieving this world of ours as well right now? is the grieving deepening the love that you feel, the love that you are, that we all are? how can we know how to love if we have not grieved? how can we grieve

wonderful! marvelous! the teachings of the insentient are inconceivable. ( chan master dongshan, 9th c.) " the ceremony of innocence is...

starting a silent retreat here in bali. ‘just this’, what is it? we practice to find out what is here, what has always been here even if it's looking for what is there that brings us here to practice. here, what is closest while we are far, lost in thought. lost in thought is also just this. whatever we may think this is, wherever we think it may be or not be, it is always ‘just this.’ ______________________________________ early morning lush greenery look outside bejewelled

What a truly magical experience. This retreat was a holiday for my brain and my soul. I had no idea that there was so much healing in...

As pointed out in the retreat there is an immense source of distractions as never before in the history of humankind. I’m sitting in an...

All reflections have a beginning, yet I am unsure where to start. How far back in time should I go for you to understand my current...

ultimately the journey makes us understand that there is no going from here to there and no becoming for us. the journey begins and ends...

" so you should view this fleeting world..." the lotus sutra so between two tides our lives this presence mirage on a shore appears shadow play of surfaces on sinking sands mirror to skies immeasurable to twinklings washed away pantai kedungu, bali september 2024

puget-thénier, alpes de haute provence, april 2022 visiting ei-tai ji temple and meeting master ryotan tokuda after a long time. he does not like being called roshi and wants to be just called sensei, teacher. yet if anyone deserves the title, meaning master in japanese, it would well be him, for him it just feels pompous and unpalatable to be called anything other than the teacher. time was needed to process how much it means to reconnect with your teacher in person after a